“Here’s a Ninth for Ya!”
Lewis Hamilton wins a Record Breaking Ninth British Grand Prix, in front of an electrified crowd at Silverstone!
Image Credit: REUTERS
Sir Lewis Hamilton just can’t stop breaking records. Over 2 years since his last F1 win, there was an early feeling that Mercedes and Mclaren would dominate the weekend but no one could have predicted just how exciting the battle would be.
Qualifying gave us everything, sun, rain, crashes and thrilling pace. The two Red Bulls made early mistakes, with Perez sliding across the gravel into the barrier sustaining light damage and Verstappen following his teammate soon after but just recovering the car before hitting the wall. However, he sustained enough damage to the underside of the car to massively affect the pace of the Red Bull in qualifying.
The void of the Red Bulls had to be filled, and so it was. An all British front 3 for the British Grand Prix, poetic.
Hamilton was just pipped to Pole, with a blistering lap time by George Russell taking top spot. Lando Norris completed the front 3, with the headlines for Saturday made.
The Race.
Sunday once again brought us everything. The conditions? Unpredictable. The drivers? Unpredictable. Mclaren’s strategy? Well…
Verstappen quickly broke up the British Trio, with a wide line from Lando at turn 3 allowing Max to dive in and take third.
From then on, it became the Weather Watch Grand Prix. Rain scheduled to move in, but how much? What tyres should we use? What Strategy?
It took until Lap 15 for Lando to reclaim his starting place. A clean manoeuvre utilising DRS to overtake Max, no crashes or controversy this time. Just two laps later, the Dutchman was once again battling with a Mclaren, but not Lando. Oscar Piastri made use of the clear pace advantage the Mclaren’s had in the latter stages of the first-tyre-stint, and made his move to take fourth away from Verstappen.
Lap 18 saw another move, Hamilton took first from Russell. The crowd went wild, though there was a clear feeling of uncertainty for some British fans, as they saw their hero back at the top, but the future greats in George and Lando being left behind.
Just a lap later, Lando had closed in on the now struggling George, for reasons which soon became clear, and made the move to go second, with his eyes fixed on the back of Lewis’ Mercedes.
Image Credit: Mclaren
On turn one, Hamilton lost the lead to Lando, in what was a brilliant and brave move by the younger driver. Piastri once again followed in the footsteps of his now race-leading colleague and took third place from George Russell, in what was turning out to be a disappointing weekend for Russell.
Before long, Piastri had pushed on into second place, as the Mclarens proved once again that they seem to be able to manage the wear on the tyres much better than those around them.
Now for the controversy…
Mclaren, now leading the race heading into the first pit window, had all the opportunity to double stack Norris and Piastri with a gap back to Hamilton in third place. For some reason, they chose to leave Piastri out. Ballsy? Brave?
However, the line between bravery and stupidity can be incredibly thin… and so it was.
Hamilton and Russell followed Lando into the pits, with Lando and Hamilton making it out in front of the pack, but Russell losing out to the undercut by Verstappen.
Piastri pitted the following lap and due to the poor call by the team, ended up dropping to sixth overall.
A poor call, it happens, but it wasn’t the last of the day by Mclaren.
Russell unfortunately retired from the race in what seemed like a bizarre situation at first when watching live, but was quickly revealed to be a water pressure issue with the car.
Image Credit: Oracle Red Bull Racing
Now Mclaren, again, seriously?
This time Hamilton pitted on lap 39, to try and undercut Lando. There was then a hectic back and forth of communication between the Mclaren pit crew and Lando, who couldn’t seem to agree on a strategy. Brand new Mediums or a used set of Soft Compound Tyres? They ended up with the former, throw in a bit of a cock up in the pit lane and Lando left the pit lane behind Hamilton, on a set of tyres that he had no chance in catching him with in the conditions.
In fact, catching Lewis was the least of his worries, because now Max wanted to throw his name into contention for the race win, with his former rival leading.
By Lap 48, Max had him. Lando gave him the outside line, and Max was through.
With just 4 laps remaining though, it wasn’t enough for Max. Sir Lewis Hamilton, over to you.
7-time World Champion, 8-time British Grand Prix winner, the joint record-holder of Most Wins at a Single Circuit.
“Here’s a Ninth for Ya!”
The Chequered Flag falls, the British Flag Rises.
Sir Lewis Hamilton, 9-time winner of the British Grand Prix. Iconic.
Image Credit: IMAGO
An Emotional Hamilton said after the race:
“I can’t stop crying! It’s been since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team. This is my last race here at the British Grand Prix with this team.
I wanted to win this so much for them, because I love them, I appreciate them so much, all the hard work they’ve been putting in all over these years. I’m forever grateful to everyone in this team, everyone at Mercedes, all of our partners, and otherwise to all our incredible fans.
I could see you lap by lap as I was coming around, and there’s just no greater feeling [than] to finish at the front here. I think the important thing is just how you continue to get up, and you’ve got to continue to dig deep even when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel.
There’s definitely been days between 2021 and here where I didn’t feel like I was good enough, or whether I was going to get back to where I am today, but the important thing is I had great people around me, continuing to support me.”
